If you were waiting for an updated KDE experience on top of Ubuntu, Kubuntu 23.10 is here.
It is not a big release, but if you are upgrading from Kubuntu 23.04 and have encountered bugs, it should be a nicer experience.
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Kubuntu 23.10 will be supported for nine months until July 2024.
Kubuntu 23.10: What's New?
The best bits of the release include:
KDE Plasma 5.27.8
KDE App updates
Linux Kernel 6.5
Firefox 118
LibreOffice 7.6
Thunderbird 115
KDE Plasma 5.27.8
If you are curious, why is it still KDE Plasma 5.27 in a new upgrade?
It is because that's the last series before KDE Plasma 6 upgrade (scheduled for February 2024). So, you should not expect any KDE Plasma 5.28 release.
With KDE Plasma 5.27.8, you get various significant bug fixes and refinements to hybrid sleep, and monitoring (via Plasma System Monitor) of NVIDIA GPUs on multi-GPU setups.
There are performance improvements for KRunner on X11, and an efficient search for keywords in the system settings.
When it comes to Discover (the software center for Kubuntu), there are improvements to how some Flatpak errors are handled, which should give you a better end-user experience.
Linux Kernel 6.5
With hardware compatibility improvements, and full support of Intel Arc graphics, you should be able to try Kubuntu on newer systems.
Linux Kernel 6.5 brings in interesting bleeding edge tech support that includes Wi-Fi 7, and USB 4. You can read more about all the other changes in our coverage:
You can expect the latest Firefox 118 baked in and try the native translation feature.
LibreOffice 7.6 is also a part of the upgrade, which is a substantial step up from its previous release with new themes, a better user experience, and compatibility improvements.
Not to forget, the stunning Thunderbird 115 is also included out of the box.
Along with these, you get the usual KDE app updates, bug fixes, and refinements to the KDE framework as well.
Other Improvements
With all the KDE updates, package upgrades, and the desktop refinements, I'm sure there are many subtle changes to the user experience.
Some other technical bits include:
Qt 5.15.10
Kate 23.08.1
📥 Getting Kubuntu 23.10
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The download may take some time to be available after the release announcement.
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